Floor sweeping compositions are notoriously old, having been in existence for perhaps a century. Typical compositions have been made up of sand or other inorganic particulate material, sawdust, and some type of oil; the sand provides weight that keeps the composition from blowing away, while the sawdust absorbs the oil, which enable it to collect the dust from the floor. Numerous oils have been suggested, e.g., "suitable non-drying vegetable oil or animal fat, such as olive-oil or lard, rosin, and pine-tar" (U.S. Pat. No. 788,042), "oils or fats, both animal and vegetable, as well as mineral oils" (U.S. Pat. No. 678,981), "kerosene or any other product of petroleum or, in fact, any non-volatile oil" (U.S. Pat. No. 803,632), "sassafras oil" (U.S. Pat. No. 884,558), and "cedar oil" (U.S. Pat. No. 1,758,735). In some instances the oil-absorbed sawdust has been partially replaced with "oil meal, linseed, cottonseed, or both" (U.S. Pat. No. 873,913) or "corn meal" (U.S. Pat. No. 858,413). By far the most common oil, however has been petroleum oil, which is not only expensive but also barred from disposal in many landfill sites. Vegetable oils, which hydrolyze readily and are much more biodegradable than petroleum oils, would be acceptable in landfill sites, but tend to be even more expensive than petroleum oil. All vegetable oils consist essentially of triesters of glycerol and various fatty acids, many having a high degree of unsaturation and tending to become rancid upon standing.